Dodging Alleycats and Whiskers
by Metarie
Summary: Scotty and Gaila have a late night conversation. One shot.


_**Disclaimer: Not mine. I do love them dearly, though.**_

_**A/N: This is a drabble that got out of hand. Hope you enjoy it. :)**_

* * *

"This was the only thing good about today," declared Gaila into the post-coital quiet of their shared bedroom.

Scotty rolled onto his side. It was almost totally dark, and all he could see were the outlines of her shape. "Inarguably the best thing about today," he agreed.

Gaila didn't respond, but Scotty felt her tense beside him.

"Something's wrong," he said.

"No, it's nothing."

"No, it's something." Scotty sat up. "Tell me."

"Scotty... it's nothing, really. I just had probably the worst day in the history of worst days." She sat up on her elbows. "I don't want to talk about it."

"But I always tell you when I have a bad day."

"Don't I know it..."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

Gaila sat up, sighing with exasperation. "Scotty, you know I love listening to you rant. It's my favorite part of every day. I just don't particularly feel like reliving it just so you can get upset too."

"It's something that would upset me?"

"Most likely. And I just don't want you to do anything stupid."

"I wouldn't!"

Gaila gave him a look.

"I probably wouldn't!"

Gaila started rubbing Scotty's back, tracing his spine lightly the way she knew he liked it. "Can't you think of anything you'd rather do right now than have that conversation?" she asked, turning the sultriness up to eleven.

For a moment Scotty was distracted, but then he shook his head and moved so they were facing each other. He grabbed her hand. "Gaila, stop trying to change the subject."

Gaila gave up. "Fine. You want to hear about it? Promise me you're not going to overreact."

"I swear." He held his hand up.

"You swear?"

"Yes. I swear."

"Okay, I'm holding you to that."

Scotty nodded rigorously, motioning for her to continue.

She took a deep breath. "Well, first off, I had to spend the morning crawling around in the Jeffries tubes, and my knees are all bruised and my back will probably be sore tomorrow. There were about a million things broken in there, I don't think we do nearly enough maintenance on them. And then I didn't get to take my lunch break until almost 1400 hours, because Mr. Ensign Skippy somehow managed to fuck up a routine diagnostic on the impulse drives that took me three hours to figure out. And then when I did get to have lunch I was practically accosted by Lieutenant Lemli in the mess hall, and that was unpleasant. And my Terellian stew was seriously undercooked, and it was all I could do not to just lose it right there in front of everyone - "

"Um, hold on just a minute," Scotty interrupted. "What did you mean when you said you were 'accosted by Lieutenant Lemli'?"

"He just... came up to me and said some inappropriate things. Don't worry about it."

"Inappropriate in what way?"

"It doesn't matter."

"Gaila," said Scotty. "Is this the part you didn't want me to get angry about?"

"Yes."

"Too late."

"Scotty, you promised you wouldn't."

"If someone is harassing you, first of all, I'd like to know about it if it happens in the future, and second of all, that is grounds for disciplinary action. I bet the captain wouldn't mind being informed about this." Scotty was fuming.

"Oh god. Please don't tell Kirk anything, seriously. Don't."

"Gaila, tell me what Lemli said."

Gaila rubbed the bridge of her nose, a pained expression on her face. "He came up to me in the line for the replicator and asked me how much you were paying me. He said, if I would put out for you then I could put out for him."

Scotty was very still. Gaila could tell, even in the darkness, that he was livid. She decided to censor the rest.

"Then he said some other things about what he'd like to do and where he'd like to do it and whether or not you'd like to watch."

"Gaila. You should have told me about this. I am getting this... this... this..." Scotty didn't seem to know a curse word accurate enough to express his feelings about Lieutenant Lemli, which was saying a lot. "I'm going to rip him apart."

"Scotty, you said you wouldn't," Gaila repeated.

"Well, I shouldn't have said that."

"It's nothing I haven't heard before."

"Oh, now I feel much better. Thank you for that."

"Well... I'm Orion. Most people just assume I'm like that..."

"Well, they shouldn't." Scotty muttered. "They don't know you."

Gaila tried not to smile. "Are you going to do anything?"

Scotty rubbed his eyes and pondered this for a moment. Finally he shook his head. "No. Not if you don't want me to."

"Okay. Good." Gaila reached for him. "Come here."

She kissed him, full on the mouth, pulling him into her, trying to express how much his indignation mattered to her in the intensity of her touch. He responded readily, and the fell back on the pillows.

After a while, they were still again. Gaila snuggled into him, on the edge of sleep.

"Gaila," said Scotty, absently stroking her hair.

"Hmm?"

"What did you do when Lemli said those things to you?"

"Oh, um... just kneed him in the crotch and broke his collarbone."

"What?!"

"Well, he's fine now, McCoy was behind him in line and took him to Sick Bay to fix him up right afterwards... what?"

Scotty couldn't stop laughing. "You're incredible."

"I don't take shit from people," she said, her voice drowsy.

"What did McCoy say?"

"He said it looked like Lemli had just suffered a terrible accident."

Scotty smiled. "Good man..."

They drifted off to sleep.


End file.
